The past 2 days have been rather packed with orientation talks and games. Evangeline and I are the only ones from SMSS there, which is quite scarce compared to other schools. On the other hand, most girls came from all-girls schools. Stepping into an originally all-boys school was and is still a little weird.

I’m quite tired now after water games in the afternoon and many hours of talks. I don’t think I’ll choose music as a subject for my first choice since I doubt I’ll have use for it. So it should be PCMeec. After listening to the talks, I really hope I’ll be able to cope with the demands of the programme cus it sounds really tough. Especially English. Oh well, take it as a challenge to grow from.

Thanks to the IP scholarship thing, my school fees are about a quarter of the original sum. With violin lessons (with the other stuff that go along with Diploma) and academics, I feel like I’m drilling a gigantic hole in mom and dad’s wallet. Better do them well then.

Kota Kinabalu

I went for this holiday rather blindly because I didn't really know what I was going to do there. It turned out that we were visiting one of my grandfather's brothers and his family.

My granduncle works as a manager of a factory selling gases - argon, oxygen, acetylene and nitrogen. The picture below shows the gases kept in large cylinders. The gases are compressed and kept under pressures as high as 2000 pounds. My granduncle said once someone didn't open a jar properly and the gas knocked out 2 teeth. It's not so much of the gases being deadly, but more of the intense pressure at which they're kept under. But of couse, if something catches fire there.. I can't imagine. I learnt quite a bit of practical chemistry during the visit.


My granduncle took us to visit another granduncle who was also living in Sabah. The next picture shows a row of shophouses. My other granduncle owns the one with the yellow shades. The lower floor is his coffeeshop. My granduncle and his family live on the second floor. His family cooked lunch for us and the food was really good. Never judge a coffeeshop by its looks.

We ate durians at my other granduncle's coffeeshop. My grandfather, his brother and dad went to buy durians from a market nearby.

I saw orange durian flesh for the first time in my life. I was told there are red ones too. The best thing is, they're organic, so the colours are natural. Amazing right?

My granduncle keeps a pet turtle at his house. It's an endangered type. Over at Sabah, the people can keep anything they want. If you look at the picture closely, this picture was taken before I found out, to my horror, that the turtle was suddenly peeing. Now that I think about it, I feel bad for scaring the poor turtle.

My granduncle also took to visit a crocodile farm. The entrance had a notice which read "Visitors are to enter at their entire risk". It got us a bit worried at first but the Chan adventurers braved the crocodiles and emerged from the exit unscathed.

I don't have any pictures for this, but the the seafood there is very, very, very good. I ate fresh fish, prawns, crabs and lobsters almost every meal (I didn't touch any of the rubbery food like eels and squids). Ahh. Kota Kinabalu is a paradise for seafood lovers (definitely not Jean who only likes fish).

I learnt a lot about life in Kota Kinabalu during this trip. There are many illegal Filipino immigrants there and they mainly occupy an island nearby. The police don't dare to chase them out because they own M16s and other weapons. Terrorist groups look on them as potential recruits. I also got to taste fruit and vegetables which I never knew existed.

I'm too used to city life. I nearly couldn't stand the slow pace of living I saw. I still wonder how people there can just sit by the road and watch the day pass by.

I'll be flying off to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, tomorrow morning with mom, dad, yeye and nai nai. Unfortunately, Jean has school, so she'll be staying in Singapore. I think she's looking forward to 4 fun days of independence. Our greatest fear is that she won't manage to wake up for school and church.

I've never been to East Malayisa before, so this'll be an interesting trip. I think I'll be visiting Mt. Kinabalu, but not climbing it, of course.

When I'm back, posting results will be out and school will finally start again.

When holidays first arrived, I felt so happy I could do everything I wanted to do. But after an overdose of it, I got tired of not having normal routines.

I'm a last minute person - I need to start packing my stuff, so bye for now.

This is a letter from Jean to everyone. I doubt many people read this, but anyway, I’m just doing my part. Jean said I should do my best to ask people to vote for her so that I can get rid of her for a week (if she wins the first prize trip to Dreamworks studio in USA).

Hello,

Recently, a few friends and I took part in a total-defence animation competition for students across Singapore (N.E.mation! IV). This is our second year taking part in this competition (and making it to the top 10 teams too), and now the clips are open to public voting. We spent our entire September holidays last year refining the story and pitching it to the judges in order to get through to the top 10, and subsequently spent 3 weeks during our December holidays producing the clip.

Our story is basically about how the scale of care revolving around Singaporeans has grown over the years - from individual, all the way to national; hence the title “Carevolution”. It also shows the importance of care in the growth of our nation, through important historical events such as the “Bukit Ho Swee fire” and “SARS pandemic”. We used both rotoscoping (digitally tracing over recorded video footages frame-by-frame) and stop-motion animation techniques in Carevolution. All the buildings, backgrounds, characters and things you see in the animation were measured, drawn, cut, constructed and glued together by us, and we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished. Even the characters were first filmed, then loaded into the computer, every frame digitally traced out, printed, pasted, cut out, and then placed in front of our hand-made backgrounds to be captured.

My friends and I would really appreciate you could support us by viewing our clip (http://nemation.sg/), and voting for C4. Voting ends on 1 Feb, so please hurry! Help spread the word, and get your family and friends to vote for us too, because (cliché as it may sound) every vote does make a difference, especially when 50% of the final results will be determined through public voting. The other 50% of the results will be determined by the judges. There are also attractive prizes such as Acer netbooks and Nintendo Wii’s to be won, simply by voting.

Steps to voting:
1. Go to (http://nemation.sg/).
2. View the Top 10 clips on the homepage (paying attention to C4...)
3. Select 3 of the 10 clips which you think deserve to win.
4. Click "Vote Now!".
5. Fill in your particulars and click "Vote Now!" again.
Team: Spoof (C4)
Title: Carevolution

Alternatively, you could view them on YouTube (http://3.ly/2yw7).

Also, if you’re interested in how we actually produced this piece of art, you can join us at our Facebook fanpage (http://3.ly/4Yz). We have uploaded videos and photos of our work, and we hope that by viewing them and getting a taste of what went on Behind-The-Scenes, you’ll be able to better appreciate our animation.
A huge amount of hard work has been put into this animation, and we really hope you’ll enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed producing it.

Thanks,

Jean Chan
Team Spoof (Methodist Girls’ School)

troublesomeness

There’s 6F class gathering tomorrow and argh.. I’m never going to step into East Coast Park after tomorrow. Fine, I was exaggerating. I won’t go unless it’s absolutely necessary or when I can finally drive there. I spent 1 hour++ trying to figure how to get to the Macs side of ECP without having to take a taxi. When I finally calculated my route timings and finished off my alternative routes research, the printer refused to cooperate with me. Since I feel so insecure without a map, I’m glad some bit of creative juice left in me decided to send the map image to my phone. Sigh.

It’s a historical moment – Jean is doing violin practice.

From outside her door, it doesn’t too bad even though she’s now the type who only practices during CCA. But I suppose for anyone, after at least 3 years of playing, intonation is no longer the major issue. It’s the finer workings (tone, virtuosic techniques, finger movement etc) that separate the masters (those everyone knows) from the ok-sounding amateurs (like me).

Today, it seemed like the whole world (I mean church) knew about my results. Quite a few congratulated me and shook hands with me when I was walking around even though I’m very sure I didn’t tell them anything about how I fared. News travels kind of fast…

I have nothing much I want to type about… Ok have a look at Jean’s 15 Jan 2010 post under Modern Christianity (if you are too free and have nothing to do). I agree with it. I’ve got to avoid sinking into that danger zone. For now, I think I’m safely out of it.

Do you believe God provides? Last year, the church was trying to meet it’s building fund target of $200,000. By the last few days of 2009, we had only met just over 50% of the target and people were getting worried. But just before 2010 came, we managed to reach the target, and even overshot it by a significant amount. Amazing right.

Today, I went through an interesting violin practice. 45 minutes into the practice, I started feeling the effects of thalasaemia minor. My arms started getting very tired and my focus was dwindling. After a while, I couldn’t stand the dizziness anymore and decided to sit down. After I thought I recovered, I tried playing 3 bars but was on the verge of fainting, so I lay down. This cycle was repeated quite a few times.

At one point, I went to my toilet but when I walked back, I got into a semi-conscious state. I tried very hard to remember how to get to my bed (I couldn’t see where I was going anymore) but I blanked out, like really. When I woke up, I nearly made it – I was half on my bed but half on the floor as well. My forehead and chin were burning and I guessed it was either because I collapsed and hit my face on the floor or I accidentally rammed my head into a wall on the way there. I really don’t remember anything.

So now I have a rather obvious patch of a red bruise on my forehead. My violin must have been traumatised.. But no worries, I’m fine now. Let’s just hope I survive violin lesson later.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not nice doing better than others. It’s not that I’m not being thankful, but rather, I wish I could do something to help them. I don’t know who will understand me, but anyway.. I wanted to go on but I’ll stop here.

While visiting a villager’s house in Thailand, I came across a question, “Can God create an object so heavy that He, Himself can’t even move it?” It is a common question which sceptics like to pose to Christians.

Today, I read a book which gave me the answer - No. Though the explanation is more important than the answer, I won’t type it out here. I found a good link here.

Oh I just remembered, Jean got an A(_) for Chinese and Rebecca did well too. Andrew must have been so relieved when he found out his Chinese was at least the same level as mine. To quote Jean, “We were talking about chi during class, and I think Lynn’s A1 is the most pressuring factor. Especially for Andrew, because he’s always teasing Lynn about her dismal chinese standard and if he doesn’t prove himself worthy of an A1, he’ll have a lot to lose.”

I'm scared for Diploma already.

A new piece I'm supposed to learn to add to my 30min repetoire:



Now is the start of 5 hectic months. There's violin lesson, practice with piano accompaniment and lessons for viva voce/programme notes just for this exam. I better do it well.

When I got my results, I didn’t know whether to be sad or happy. The sad part was that my A Math and Chemistry (two subjects which I was more sure of getting an A1 for) didn’t get A1. On the bright side, English and Combined Humanities (the 2 subjects I was most worried about) had A1. Mom thinks God has a good sense of humour. I guess I prefer this combination since it’s more relevant to my L1R5. O level results can be surprising. As usual, I was one position behind Ebot.

Firstly, I thank God for the results and all glory goes directly to Him. Next, family and relatives for prayers and support. Also, my teachers, church and friends. There are really too many to list by name.

I was never a bright student and I never imagined that I’d be able to get what I have for O levels. Nevertheless, I’m thankful I woke up in time.

I’m going to try for ACS(I). Whether I get in or not, I can be sure that wherever I land will be part of a perfect plan, just like how I entered SMSS.

Oh and Jean still hasn’t told me what she got for Chinese. She tricked me into telling her my results first and backed off from the deal. Ah well, I’ll find out sooner or later.

(credit for the picture: Jean)

I've finally finished my 15th model. This one is a Volkswagen 1300 Beetle, 1966 Model. The other day I asked yeye what colour his Beetle used to be, he replied, "have green, white, blue, yellow..." I really didn't know he drove so many Beetles. No wonder he's such a big fan of them. So, maybe this Beetle should be dedicated to him.

This model is one of the most tedious I've ever done. There was about 70% painting to be done, which is quite a lot. It's not like painting a real car, because every drop of paint has to fall on a precise spot. One bit out and the car will look very messy. For example, I think I took 2 days to do the windows because the silver edges had to be very neat.

The picture on top doesn't do enough justice to all my hard work. The engine and interior designs (like the dashboard) had to be even more precise than the painting on the exterior.

Ah well, despite the "troublesomeness" (to quote Ebot), the sense of accomplishment is rewarding.

I got my first pay today! – in the form of a book. I was asked to choose between a study bible and a NT survey. I chose the Encountering the New Testament: A historical and theological survey because I found it more practical and interesting. Now I have a few books on my reading waiting list. Anyway, I found it a very practical reward.

I went for the SYFC JC Connections thing today as well. The people there are quite friendly and caring. I had a fun and meaningful time.

Tomorrow’s the beginning of another weekend..

The past few days have been rather packed. I’ve been going out to play every day. Today was a movie marathon at Ai’s house with Ruri at 7.30am. I felt very weird when my bus passed by SMSS and I didn’t have to get off. I also got curious stares from passers by who must have thought I was playing truant.

Evangeline just told me that Jie Ying complained I’m never online when she is. Sigh.. I’d been wondering why too. But it all boils down to bad timing. I come around 10 plus because once I get on at 8pm, I find it hard to get off… Actually, it’s ok jy, we can use telepathy! (jk..)

Oh yes I just remembered, I got a job. I’m working at the S’pore Bible College book centre at flexible hours. I think I’m paid well ($8/hour?). Anyway, it doesn’t matter to me whether I’m paid or not since I’m not in great need of money. I think the book centre should just save money on me and use it for greater purposes.

Yea ok I have no more nonsense to unload from my brain so I’ll go sleep now.

Saturday 2 Jan

Happy new year!

Hi Jie Ying, welcome back!

Today, I just learnt that youth fellowships in Chinese churches are rare. The pastor was saying how he was talking to another pastor and that pastor was surprised that our church even had a youth fellowship. The “fate” of most Chinese churches today is an ageing population which gradually leads to their shutting down. But Chinese churches need to stand strong in upholding the Chinese language, otherwise it’ll just decline all the way.

There was 就职典礼 in church just now, whereby 2009 committee members from all 3 fellowships step down and the new 2010 committee members are “sworn in”. So I stepped down as 副团长 of TF ‘09 and stepped up as 团长 of TF ‘10.

Ok this is the worst part. I made my first announcement as a 团长 and at the same time, made my first serious blunder. I was trying to announce that there would be 职员会议 (committee meeting) next Sunday. But because of my lousy Chinese and first-time-making-announcement state, it came out as “我们有教职员会议..." (Sunday School teachers/staff meeting). There was a *gasp* moment and then everyone in the room started laughing uncontrollably.

Mom (the Sunday School principal) was going: “wah 你连我的饭碗也要跟我抢啊! ” (translated: my rice bowl you also want to steal!) [meaning that by making that announcement, I had just “taken over” her role as principal]

When I finally returned to my seat, they were still laughing madly. After the service, my slip became like some greatest joke of the church history. I think it's going to be at least a year till it's nicely forgotten.

Anyway, I hope 2010 will be a good year for TF. My aim is to help TF grow 1. in numbers and 2. in spiritual maturity.